Update 4:45 pm
Snow will continue to accumulate in the high terrain areas of West Virginia through the night and into Sunday morning.
Stormtracker chief meteorologist Spencer Adkins says the wind coming off the Great Lakes is responsible for extra accumulations in the mountainous areas.
"The main area of low pressure that brought snow to much of Ohio and the high terrain areas of West Virginia has gone by us, but that opens the door to the northwest wind coming off the Great Lakes and tonight, it's simply a matter of seeing more snow accumulate in our higher elevation areas and western facing slopes east of Charleston," said Adkins.
Less than an inch is expected overnight in the Ohio Valley with up to an inch around Charleston, roughly 2 inches around the Beckley area with as much as a new 3 to 6 inches of snow falling in western Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties through mid morning Sunday.
"We also have a big concern for everything icing over again overnight since many roads were wet," said Adkins. "We hope people will drive with extreme caution overnight and Sunday morning, paying close attention to back roads, bridges and overpasses as the most treacherous driving areas."
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Update 7am Saturday:
Several viewers have reported accumulations of ice and some power outages.
According to the AEP outage website, as many as 1842 customers are without power in Raleigh County and 403 are without service so far in Mercer County.
Road conditions range from wet to icy. Salt has been effective on main roads but secondary, untreated roads will remain very slick through much of the day.
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A fast moving winter storm means slick travel for drivers on Saturday in the 59 News viewing area.
Winter weather advisories for 2 to 4 inches of snow is in effect until late Saturday afternoon for Greenbrier, Summers, Monroe, Mercer and Bland counties while as much as 3 to 6 inches of new snow could stick in sections of Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties on the high western slopes.
"We don't expect much snow west of I-77 due to slightly warmer air there, but we see a wintry mix changing to snow early Saturday, making roads slick across the entire region, with the largest amounts of snow sticking east of I-77 and through the high terrain in our northeastern section of the viewing area," says chief meteorologist Spencer Adkins.
After the initial band of snow moves through, the familiar upslope snow pattern will kick in according to Adkins.
"The wind off of Lake Michigan will work its magic once again for another couple of inches of accumulation in the eastern tip of Fayette County as well as western Greenbrier and Pocahontas. That will subside Sunday afternoon, so our 'snow belt' areas will once again have the largest amounts of snow which is a very common scenario," he added.
Stormtracker 59 will be posting updates to facebook.com/stormtracker59 as well as to Twitter @Stormtracker59 all weekend and don't forget to search for the Stormtracker59 app on iTunes and Google Play.
Courtesy Angela Sellards Photography in Shady Spring
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